


it flew between us as we slept

by bemusedlybespectacled (ardentintoxication)



Series: Maleval Week 2014 [5]
Category: Maleficent (2014)
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/M, Literal Sleeping Together, Maleval Week, Resolved Sexual Tension, Sleepy Cuddles, Slow Burn, literally the most tame sex scene ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 01:50:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2048766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardentintoxication/pseuds/bemusedlybespectacled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times they slept together, and one time they didn't.</p><p>For Maleval Week: the day 5 prompt was "Sleeping/Spooning (+Preening)."</p>
            </blockquote>





	it flew between us as we slept

Their first winter as mistress and servant is brutally cold, perhaps the coldest in living memory. Even the Moors, usually not as affected by winter as King Henry's- no, King Stefan's kingdom now, is wracked with freezing winds and heavy snows. Maleficent retreats into the warm caves long-since abandoned by any other creature and builds a fire there, watching the shadows on the wall while she awaits Diaval's report. When he flies in late during a blizzard, she looks up only briefly, enough to twist her hand in his direction. She wasn't worried.

His shirt and hair in human form are soaked through with snow. "Nothing, mistress," he says. "There aren't even guards posted on the wall, it's so cold."

She huffs, her breath a cloud of steam. The fire's gone down and the cave is cold again. She flicks a hand at the flames and they perk up immediately. "Fine. You needn't go outside again until this weather stops."

"Thank you, mistress," he says, sitting himself down. He's shivering.

"Keep the fire burning," she says. "Wake me if it needs encouragement."

"Mistress?"

"I am going to sleep. You may keep watch."

He does. The fire does not go out.

* * *

 Some time before Aurora's fifth birthday, he brings her word that King Stefan is bringing enormous war machines, apparently at great expense, from Ulstead.

"He hopes to attack the Wall, does he?" she says. "Very well. Go and seek these machines and tell me what they look like and what they do."

He's gone for almost a full day, and when he returns, it's night, and she's dozing in her tree. His shaky landing startles her, and she flicks gold magic at him.

"It's true," he says, chest heaving. "The machines- they launch stones, and the stones can be set on fire. He means to burn the Wall down."

Maleficent chuckles darkly. "He's getting more desperate by the hour." Diaval, eyelids drooping, isn't listening. She frowns. "Did you fly far?" she asks.

"Yes," he says. "Nearly to Ulstead."

She rolls her eyes. "Hold on." She makes a circling motion with her hands, and the branches to her left twist, forming something like a nest. She turns him into a bird again, then places him in it. He caws, confused.

"You're exhausted. There's no way you can go back to your own nest like this. Sleep," she orders.

He obeys her.

* * *

 The night she gets her wings back, they fly back to Moors together. He's covered in soot and she's weak from the cold iron. In her tree, the one they've shared for more than eleven years, she changes him into a man. There are deep bruises around his neck.

"Their chains," he says by way of explanation. She puts her hands around his neck. He doesn't flinch.

"The fools," she mutters, golden magic pooling in her palms.

"They did well for humans against a dragon," he points out, hissing. The magic tingles.

"They shouldn't have dared." The bruises fade until they are a pale green. They'll be healed in a day or two. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

He shakes his head. "No."

"Good," she says. "Then I am going to sleep."

She lifts a hand to change him back, but he stops her. "Your wings," he says.

"What about them?"

"They need preening."

"Of course they do, they've been kept in some tower for years-"

"-let me."

She pauses, thinking, but then she turns around, offering her wings to him. He straightens each feather softly, carefully, and she doesn't realize that she has fallen asleep until the next morning.

* * *

 Aurora invites them to the castle for her coronation, and through some error (one that Maleficent thoroughly enjoys haranguing the hapless servant for) they are assigned a single room with a single bed.

"I'm so sorry, your majesty," says the servant when he returns. "But with all the nobility in attendance, I'm afraid there simply isn't a room to spare."

"Very well," says Diaval, before Maleficent can speak, and the man scuttles out as quick as he can. In the absence of the servant, she glares at Diaval. "What?" he says. "It's not like we can do anything about it."

During the day, it's easy to forget. They've more important things to think about, like navigating the treacherous waters of Aurora's court. But that night, after a tedious state dinner with at least two halfhearted poisonings, they both collapse into bed, and the distance they've both carefully maintained for more than sixteen years melts away.

Maleficent sinks her teeth into Diaval's shoulder, runs her fingers through his hair, pulls. He gasps.

His hands reach under her nightgown, softly, softly. Reverent. Prayerlike.

There's no one else in this bed but them, and they move together, climbing higher, flying-

It's so quiet.

* * *

 The next morning, they don't look at each other. Maleficent waves some magic towards the wine-colored bruises on Diaval's neck, doesn't notice that he looks almost disappointed. They go through another elaborate ceremony, sit through even more tedious negotiations, and while Diaval is never from his mistress's side, they do not speak of that night until they are back in the safety of their room once more.

"I'm sorry," Maleficent says before Diaval can speak. "For last night."

Diaval frowns. "For what?"

"I took advantage of your station and mine-"

"Nothing that I haven't wanted for years!" he says.

"-and I - you what?"

"Have wanted this. Wanted _you_ ," says Diaval. He smiles like he can't believe she'd be so slow. "Honestly, mistress, I considered my life debt paid when I saved you from Stefan's iron net. I wouldn't be here unless I chose to be."

Maleficent is crumbling. "How long?" she asks.

"Sixteen years," he replies.

Their kiss is impossible, a kiss of true love, as honest as either of them have ever been.

They kiss again and again, pressing impossibilities into each other's skin, and that night they sleep with Diaval's back flush against Maleficent, her arms around him.

* * *

 "You're doing it too roughly. You have to weave the twigs very tightly so they don't poke the nestlings."

"You slept in the nest I built you for more than ten years!"

"That's because I was too polite to question your workmanship."

" _You_ do it, then, my pet."

"Yes, mistress."

**Author's Note:**

> Maleficent has wings, she is totally the big spoon.


End file.
